Day 44 - Get A Motorcycle

•  Buy your smashing new motorcycle in the Best Buy of Bluefields!

Day 43 - Taffic Light

• About 50,000 people live in Bluefields. This is the one and only traffic light in the entire city.

Obviously, not everyone notices its sad existence

Day 42 - No Appreciation For Silence

• These people cannot seem to stand silence. Not only is silence not appreciated in the day time in nature, we have many nights with people blasting radio or some Nigerian (yes, Africa) soap opera on TV all night long.

Day 42 - Magic That Gets the Fire Started!

• Plastic bag is the best starter-fuel to start the fire for cooking. It works incredibly well. I mean, what do I expect? It is made out of petroleum.

  

  A child starting a fire with black shopping plastic bag in the woods

  

  Our kitchen-mama starting fire with cereal plastic bag on our stove

  Bottom-line, this is a common practice.

Day 41 - Running Sea

Running sea is what the indigenous people call surfing the sea in a dugout log canoe (they call it dory even when it doesn't have the sail on). One beautiful afternoon in Bangkukuk Taik (aka Eagle Point), we decided to go surf the big waves. The five of us fit perfectly in the canoe, but no more.
When we started pushing the canoe into the water on the sandy beach, the three foreigners (Amelie, Jerome, and me) saw that water was coming in from at least five big holes in the canoe, so we told our two local friends, Guthri and Ronald.

Guthri: Don't worry, Ronald is a professional.

Ronald went into the woods and came back with a piece of rock and wood. Jumped into the canoe, he started hammering the clothes that were already in the cracks back in to seal the hole, but the waves were still hitting the canoe, so the water kept coming in while he was hammering the cracks tight. We were only 2 feet away from dry sand, but they refused to push the canoe back to do the sealing job there.

Guthri: OK, we done. Let's go! Get in! Get in!

As we pushed the canoe deeper into the sea (we're at about knee-deep right now), water started gushing through the cracks.

Me: Uhh.. Guthri, it didn't work. We should probably go back to the dry sand and try to seal it again...
Guthri: No no no. We keep going. Keep pushin. Get in! Everybody get in!

So all five of us jumped into the canoe.

Guthri: Paddle! Paddle! Quick!

 As the little canoe struggles to rush though the waves into the sea, the water level inside the canoe rises only higher and higher. As we were almost a kilometer (or half a mile) away from the shore, a wave came and swallowed our canoe...

Here we are, in the sea without life-jackets, with our canoe upside down filled with water.

Jerome: Uhh.. Guthri, what do we do now? How do we get the water out of the boat?
Guthri: Don't worry, man. Watch our trick.

Guthri and Ronald got to each side of the canoe and started rocking the canoe violently. 20 seconds later, the canoe is back on the top of the water.
Guthri: See? I tell you not to worry.
Amelie: We should seal the cracks again. Where's the rock and the wood?
Me: We lost everything when we almost lost our boat...
Guthri: Jump in! Jump in!

As expected, we got into the canoe, the water started gushing into the canoe again.

Amelie: Do we turn around and go back now?
Guthri: NO! NO! We cannot turn around. Keep going!

We looked at each other and just kept going towards the waves.

I wish I was able to capture some pictures during this exhilarating adventure of surfing in a canoe while trying to keep as much water out as possible.

I didn't bring my camera because I knew I would be wet - but little did I know that we would be so close to sinking our boat so many times...

Found this image on geckoadventure.net. It looks just like the one we were in.

Day 40 - Baseball Games in the Rain

• Half an hour into the game, it started pouring. The rain was so serious that after 5 minutes, they decided that it's probably best to cover the field up with a plastic tarp to keep it drier for the game. Unfortunately, they had to bail because it was literally pouring cats and dogs.

I'd really like to see how much the tarp could keep the field dry

Day 40 - When There is a Baseball Stadium in the Caribbean Coast

• Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Nicaragua (at least in the Caribbean Coast). Bluefields, being the capital of the municipality of Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur (R.A.A.S.), is the first city to have a baseball stadium in the Caribbean Coast (Thanks to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega).

"Thanks, Daniel, for your support in sport in the coast!"

 Because Bluefields was the first to have a stadium in the coast, of all the stadiums in the coast, stadium here is the oldest, smallest, and doesn't even have lights to play games at night. Even the stadiums tiny towns like Kukra Hills and Corn Island has bright lights and big fields to play in.

Man updating the scoreboard with his little house on the side

Day 39 - More on Kriol

• The top three languages spoken in Bluefields are Spanish, Kriol English (or Creole English), and Miskito. To get a taste of what Kriol English sounds and looks like, here is a poster created for blueEnergy's recycling campaign. The best part is that written Kriol is not standardized, so most fluent Kriol speakers see the posters below will immediately assume that it is in Miskito and not even read it.

Kriole English

Standard English

While I'm at it, I'll throw in Jump by RDX with lyrics. Try and see how much you can catch without reading the lyrics, then try and see how much you can understand reading the lyrics.
This is a Jamaican song you will hear everyday coming from bars, cabs, other people's houses, etc. in Bluefields this summer.

Day 38 - Here Comes the Lobster Season!

• Lobster's favorite food is cow skin (basically unprocessed leather)
• There are two holes in a lobster trap for the lobsters to enter the cage. The lobster cages are generally left at the bottom of the sea for 20 days. The longer the wait the more lobster they will catch.
• the best bait to catch lobsters are other lobsters. When a lobster sees a group of lobster, they immediately believe that it is a safe place with food; hence the longer the wait, the more lobster they will catch.

Day 38 - Love for the Priest

• On Big Corn Island, we were trying to take the bus, but only to find out that because the priest just passed away, the bus services are then canceled to take people to the priest's memorial services. This is one of the many reasons I haven't seen a single bus running in town in the Caribbean Coast. They've got priorities.

Day 37 - Safety on La Costena?!

• On the La Costena aircraft, don't be surprised to find out that the seat-belt buckles don't match. Melisa flew without her seat-belt on.

Malfunction Seat-belt

Day 37 - Suspicious Packages at the Airport

• Catching the plane to Corn Island at 6am. After check-in, we took a nap at the waiting area (remember, we need to be at the airport >1.5 hours before the estimated flight departure time). Melisa slept very briefly while we all knocked out, and this happened:

Airport Officer: [comes to sit right next to Melisa] Do you speak Spanish?
Melisa: yes.
Airport Officer: Great. [hands out a thick folder] When you get to Corn Island, could you please hand this to the airport officers there for me?
Melisa: Umm... Aren't you the people who tell us NOT TO take things from strangers at the airport?
Airport Officer: No.... [looking very confused] I have no idea what you are talking about. Thank you.

Secret documents delivered successfully

Day 36 - Keep It Wrapped Up

• I've seen this too often that I have to share... Not sure why they like to leave their freshener in the packaging, but I'm sure if I ask, I will get different answers from different people.

 

Day 35 - Too Many Stray Dogs, Time to Diversify!

• There is a stray horse in Bluefields. Likely because the owner got really drunk and fell off the horse and died, leaving the horse on the street. How no one reclaimed the horse? I don’t know.

  

  This horse is everywhere

  
  

Day 34 - Don't Even Think About It

• The phone lines here in Bluefields are so saturated that you cannot get another line in the entire city. This problem has been going on for at least six months and the private telecommunications companies just don't care.

Day 33 - Indigenous Hospitality

• In Manhattan (a little town of 40 families south of Pearl Lagoon), every family you visit will make a plate a food to welcome you. Be prepared if you plan to visit muiltiple families in a day. 
  
  

  

  The kind woman of the house making delicious food for us in Manhattan in her smokey kitchen hut

  
  

Day 33 - The Rain Ruins EVERYTHING

• People change plan easily because of rain. They skip meeting, church, or school just because of rain.

Day 33 - This Panga's Got Their Priorities Straight

• Sometimes, if you're very lucky, not only does the panga have a hood, but it would also have loud stereo blasting reggae tone. Obviously, when it starts pouring, we pull out that tarp for protection regardless of the nice facility.

Day 32 - Kriol Speak

Common salutation on the street here in Kriol English:

  Kriol1: "Hello."

  Kriol2: "OK."

  Kriol1: "Alright."

  Kriol2: "Cool."

OR

Kriol1: "How?" (How are you?)

Kriol2: "Right here." (Good)